NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 (Photo: Staff Sgt. Bradley Lail, USAF, via Wikimedia Commons).
Despite pressure from LGBT activists following the overwhelming defeat of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) on Tuesday, the National Football League is not budging on its decision to hold the 51st Super Bowl in Houston in 2017.
“This will not affect our plans for Super Bowl LI in 2017,” Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesman, told NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk. “We will work closely with the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee to make sure all fans feel welcomed at our events. Our policies emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness, and prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other improper standard.”
HERO, which would have prohibited discrimination against a number of protected classes, including LGBT people, was passed in May 2014 by the Houston City Council. Opponents tried to petition it to the ballot, but failed to garner enough valid signatures. The Texas Supreme Court later interceded and forced the ordinance to be placed on the ballot. HERO was eventually defeated, garnering only 39 percent of the vote to opponents’ 61 percent.
Supporters of the LGBT community launched a petition at Change.org soon after the election results came in, arguing that the NFL should move the Super Bowl from Houston. As of mid-day Thursday, the petition had received 2,287 signatures.
Some had speculated that the NFL might be pressured to change the venue for the Super Bowl due to the influence of the LGBT community, in the same way that it seriously considered moving the 2015 Super Bowl from Arizona after lawmakers attempted to pass a law that would allow discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. That measure was eventually killed with a veto from then-Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican.
But while the NFL is refusing to budge on the 2017 Super Bowl, supporters of equality can take a small measure of solace that there might be at least some form of karmic justice. On Wednesday, Houston lost three separate bids to host the College Football Championship game for 2018, 2019 and 2020. As LGBT sports website OutSports notes, the three cities that Houston lost two — Atlanta, San Francisco, and New Orleans — all have nondiscrimination protections for LGBT individuals enacted into law.
Retail giant Walmart has become the largest U.S. corporation to roll back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives amid fervor by conservatives to eliminate policies they claim unfairly disadvantage white people, straight people, and cisgender individuals.
Robby Starbuck, a conservative activist, has been at the forefront of the crackdown against DEI policies in corporate America. On November 25, Starbuck said on X that he had threatened Walmart executives that he would be doing a story exposing "wokeness" at the company and eviscerating it for its pro-LGBTQ or pro-diversity policies.
A man currently in police custody for one crime has now been charged with a separate hate crime for allegedly attempting to set an LGBTQ pub on fire.
The Neighbor's, a Santa Cruz-based pub that describes itself on its website as an "LGBTQ+ centric and socially responsible restaurant and community space," recently held a soft opening, complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, in early December.
A few days after its opening, the venue, was nearly set alight by a masked individual.
Owner Frankie Farr told Lookout Santa Cruz that they initially noticed a black discoloration near the front doorway and thought it was graffiti. Upon closer inspection, they noticed the Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant door push button was melted off, burned napkins had been shoved inside the door frame, and a homophobic slur had been carved into the door's glass.
In the wake of Donald Trump's win in the 2024 election, some voters have been receiving offensive text messages.
The FBI said in a statement that it is aware of a flood of texts aimed at LGBTQ people being told to report to a "re-education camp," an apparent reference to conversion therapy.
Diana Brier, a 41-year-old lesbian, told The New York Times that she received one of the texts referring to an executive order and instructing her to check in to be transported to an undisclosed location for an "LGB re-education camp." The message also mentioned Trump and the date of his inauguration.
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